Tracing the pedagogical paths towards the synthesis of the actor-singer-musician

Abstract

Music drama as an idea had been around since at least medieval times, when liturgical dramas and mystery plays were commonplace. In the sixteenth century the pastoral play and the courtly intermedio seen between the acts of spoken plays, held sway. The Medicis were well known for their lavish intermedii, sycophantically allegorical episodes designed to flaunt their riches and adorn ceremonies. But then a purer dramma per musica came along. Much later in seventeenth century England, it started being called 'Opera', meaning literally 'works'. Between the years 1500-1580, a group of Florentine intellectual cum-literary radicals, whom we know collectively as the Camerata, sat around at one of their regular meetings dominated by two leading figures - Vincenzo Galilei (c.1520-91) and Giovanni Bardi (1534-1612). They would meet up to discuss the Meaning of Art, Life, the Universe and Everything. What this gathering was actually aiming to do was re-create the ideals and principles of ancient Greek drama. The sources they had at hand at the time suggested that Greek drama was either sung or declaimed in such a way as to heighten (yet maintain the clarity of) the texts. They decided that their new works should likewise follow the contours of dramatic declamation, with embellishments on particularly meaningful words.